Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson has revealed how he feared becoming a victim of the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle during the ’80s - and how a comment from The Who’s Pete Townshend helped him turn his life around.
In a new interview with Classic Rock, Dickinson recalls how Iron Maiden’s heavy touring schedule in that period was tough on him and other members of the band.
“All through the ’80s we were working so hard, like eight shows in ten days over the course of eight months,” he says. “And then at the end of one year of that, you get to do it all over again. And this goes on for five years…
“You're under constant stress every night. You’re suffering from a lack of sleep and self-induced shit, whether it's chasing after women, whether it's drugs, whether it's alcohol. And every day you just get up and do it all again.
“You're a bunch of lads together against the world. And nobody's going to help you if you fall down, so you're just going to crack on, crack on, crack on…
“You’re not part of normal society. PTSD, dislocation - that's effectively what you’ve got. And depending on your personality type, you deal with it in different ways. Steve [Harris, bassist] became a recluse. Adrian [Smith, guitarist] was drinking himself into an early grave. I was busy shagging everything that moved. And none of it was healthy.
“I remember something that Pete Townshend once said about groupies. ‘The moment you realise that you can click your fingers and manipulate people into having sex with you, that’s the moment you're going down the slippery slope.’ Up till that moment, it's innocent. You can't believe women are throwing themselves at you. You think, well, this is nice! And it is. It’s fucking great!
“But there's a dark side to this. Where do you stop? When does it become a prop, like alcohol or cocaine? When does this become your reality - when it’s not actually real?
“So that's when I started doing extracurricular activities like fencing. I was thinking: I’ve got to do something to keep my brain clean. Because I was looking around at our contemporaries in the ’80s…
“We toured with Mötley Crüe. Complete fucking casualties, much of it self-induced. And I was like, ‘Please tell me I'm not going to end up like that!’”
Dickinson says that at the end of Maiden’s World Slavery tour in 1985, he reached a crossroads in his life.
“I genuinely thought I should just pack it all in completely,” he says. “Not go solo. Not do anything. Just stop being part of music, because it’s just not worth it. It's tanked any relationships I might have had, or wanted to keep.”
Dickinson eventually left Iron Maiden in 1993 and only returned in 1999, where he has remained ever since.
He tells Classic Rock he has regrets about those crazy days in the ’80s.
“There’s a lot of things I missed,” he says. “My kids growing up. Yes, I saw them, but I didn't see them to grow up in the way that normal people see their kids grow up. And all the failed relationships, because your mind is skewed. You don't have a normal set of priorities.”
But now, at 66, Dickinson is happily married for the third time.
“I'm super happy, because she's brilliant for my mental health,” he says, but then admits: “I think I'm shocking for hers!”
